Kia Niro is the 2023 Women’s World Car of the Year

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The Niro first took its category of Best Urban Car before going on to the final round of voting. (Disclosure: This author is one of the judges.) The winners in each of the six segment categories were selected from a total of 59 eligible vehicles.

To qualify for voting, a vehicle must be all-new or substantially changed, and be available on a minimum of two continents (some of the vehicles on the list aren’t sold in Canada; the Ranger in this year’s voting is an all-new version that isn’t here yet). The vehicles are assessed on such aspects as performance, safety, quality, price, environmental footprint, and design, and judges must have driven a vehicle to vote on it. The judges include two from Canada and six from the United States.

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“This year’s election was particularly difficult, due to the excellent level of all the candidates,” said Marta Garcia, executive president of WWCOTY, who lives in Spain. “Each of the finalists had sufficient merit to win the trophy.”

The Niro is all-new for 2023, and in Canada is offered as a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and EV.

The Women’s World Car of the Year was created in 2009 by Sandy Myhre, an auto writer from New Zealand, who now serves as the group’s honorary president. It is the world’s only car award selected exclusively by women automotive writers — but as the group says, it isn’t intended to select a “woman’s car,” but to recognize the best cars of the year and to give visibility to women in the automotive industry across all continents.